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Wednesday, April 20, 2011

HOW TO: Make an iPad that doesn't look like an iPad but Apple will sue you anyway. [Part 1]

Here we go. Apple is once again going all "I fucking sue you because you stole my candy" over it's competitors. As we all know, the American Patent system is like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory for Patent-Trolls.
If you don't know what patent-trolls are, here the official definition

pat·ent troll/ˈpatnt

trōl/

noun: Shitty company that even has filed patents for vaginae (yeah that's plural of vagina), suing everyone who owns or uses them without paying the troll a ridiculous amount of money, even if they didn't invent it in the first place.

see also: Technology Pimp.

So they just have thousands of stupid patents and sue everyone who dares to make a great product based on a similar idea. Even if they have not a working product that is based on their patent. They OWN the idea, even if you never heard of it and came up with it all by yourself, they claim you STOLE it from them.

Here the list of patents their lawsuit is based on:

7 utility (i.e., hardware and software) patents

U.S. Patent No. 7,812,828 on an "ellipse fitting for multi-touch surfaces" (previously asserted against Motorola in an ITC complaint and a federal lawsuit)

U.S. Patent No. 7,669,134 on a "method and apparatus for displaying information during an instant messaging session" (a software patent, presumably infringed by the Google Talk chat client, which I also use on my Galaxy phone and on which this patent may very well read)

U.S. Patent No. 6,493,002 on a "method and apparatus for displaying and accessing control and status information in a computer system" (previously asserted against Motorola in a federal lawsuit)

U.S. Patent No. 7,469,381 on "list scrolling and document translation, scaling, and rotation on a touch-screen display" (previously asserted against HTC in a federal lawsuit)

Apple claims to hold "trade dress protection in the design and appearance of the iPhone, the iPod touch, and the iPad, together with their distinctive user interfaces and product packaging." (yes, in Apple's view even Samsung's packaging infringes its rights)

That's quite a list, huh? (source) And surprisingly, they just started to bash when they saw that Samsung became a threat.
Well there is a good post on zweipunktnull.org which points out, that Apple should be the last one to say someone stole their design... (Here the article (German, but with lots of pictures)). Apple uses the same books about design-patterns as everyone and one of the most famous designers, who is lots of times mentioned as a reference for great, simple design is Dieter Rams. Rams worked as a designer for Braun and developed a lot of really neat looking Products, long before Steve Jobs stopped shitting in his diapers.

I have to admit, that lots of similarities between iOS and touchwiz are found if you look for it (try to look for the number 23) but Apple wasn't the first company with square shaped icons in a raster or that used a shortcut bar for applications. They just issued a shitty patent for it and brag that they invented multitouch and facetime and such.

So, what is the point of suing the company that produces all your precious components for your smartphones? It's quite stupid and short-sighted if you think about the fact that Apple also infringes some of Samsungs patents.

And, in my personal opinion, I can't see any hardware resemblance. The UI has some similar colors and a similar layout but compare these two:

See any similarities?
So, WTF Apple? What are you thinking? Just because you finally realize that your reign is over, you can't just sue everyone else who makes great products. How about improving your own product to keep up with the competition? Or do you just want to stick to your "wow we totally invented something new" policy without having to worry that someone else could make something better? That would be very convenient for you I guess.
And btw: WTF do you want with all that location data?

Here we go. Apple is once again going all "I fucking sue you because you stole my candy" over it's competitors. As we all know, the American Patent system is like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory for Patent-Trolls.
If you don't know what patent-trolls are, here the official definition

pat·ent troll/ˈpatnt

trōl/

noun: Shitty company that even has filed patents for vaginae (yeah that's plural of vagina), suing everyone who owns or uses them without paying the troll a ridiculous amount of money, even if they didn't invent it in the first place.

see also: Technology Pimp.

So they just have thousands of stupid patents and sue everyone who dares to make a great product based on a similar idea. Even if they have not a working product that is based on their patent. They OWN the idea, even if you never heard of it and came up with it all by yourself, they claim you STOLE it from them.

Here the list of patents their lawsuit is based on:

7 utility (i.e., hardware and software) patents

U.S. Patent No. 7,812,828 on an "ellipse fitting for multi-touch surfaces" (previously asserted against Motorola in an ITC complaint and a federal lawsuit)

U.S. Patent No. 7,669,134 on a "method and apparatus for displaying information during an instant messaging session" (a software patent, presumably infringed by the Google Talk chat client, which I also use on my Galaxy phone and on which this patent may very well read)

U.S. Patent No. 6,493,002 on a "method and apparatus for displaying and accessing control and status information in a computer system" (previously asserted against Motorola in a federal lawsuit)

U.S. Patent No. 7,469,381 on "list scrolling and document translation, scaling, and rotation on a touch-screen display" (previously asserted against HTC in a federal lawsuit)

Apple claims to hold "trade dress protection in the design and appearance of the iPhone, the iPod touch, and the iPad, together with their distinctive user interfaces and product packaging." (yes, in Apple's view even Samsung's packaging infringes its rights)

That's quite a list, huh? (source) And surprisingly, they just started to bash when they saw that Samsung became a threat.
Well there is a good post on zweipunktnull.org which points out, that Apple should be the last one to say someone stole their design... (Here the article (German, but with lots of pictures)). Apple uses the same books about design-patterns as everyone and one of the most famous designers, who is lots of times mentioned as a reference for great, simple design is Dieter Rams. Rams worked as a designer for Braun and developed a lot of really neat looking Products, long before Steve Jobs stopped shitting in his diapers.

I have to admit, that lots of similarities between iOS and touchwiz are found if you look for it (try to look for the number 23) but Apple wasn't the first company with square shaped icons in a raster or that used a shortcut bar for applications. They just issued a shitty patent for it and brag that they invented multitouch and facetime and such.

So, what is the point of suing the company that produces all your precious components for your smartphones? It's quite stupid and short-sighted if you think about the fact that Apple also infringes some of Samsungs patents.

And, in my personal opinion, I can't see any hardware resemblance. The UI has some similar colors and a similar layout but compare these two:

See any similarities?
So, WTF Apple? What are you thinking? Just because you finally realize that your reign is over, you can't just sue everyone else who makes great products. How about improving your own product to keep up with the competition? Or do you just want to stick to your "wow we totally invented something new" policy without having to worry that someone else could make something better? That would be very convenient for you I guess.
And btw: WTF do you want with all that location data?

HOW TO: Make an iPad that doesn't look like an iPad but Apple will sue you anyway. [Part 1]